GAA17CA211 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From George T Lewis Airport (KCDK) to George T Lewis Airport (CDK)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA211
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Mooney M20J
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N1157N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From George T Lewis Airport (KCDK), Ocala, FLTo George T Lewis Airport (CDK), Cedar Key, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 35 years (built 1982)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · aborted after touchdown
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, during the landing roll, he had traveled about halfway down the 2,355 ft-long runway when he realized that a go-around was going to be required. He could not recall the airplane's airspeed when the airplane touched down on the runway that was located steps from the ocean. However, he did recall that he initiated the go-around by applying full throttle, retracting the flaps to 0, and rotating at 62 knots. The airplane "lifted off but did not gain altitude." The pilot lowered the nose to accelerate, but the airplane stalled and impacted the water. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing spar and aileron.
According to the manufacturer's Pilot's Operating Handbook, the go-around procedure is:
CAUTION
To minimize control wheel forces during go-around, timely nose-down trimming is recommended to counteract nose up pitching moment as power is increased and/or flap retraction.
Power…..Full Throttle/2700 RPM
Mixture…..Full Rich
Airspeed…..65 KIAS
Wing Flaps…..Takeoff position after climb established
Trim…..Nose Down (to reduce control forces)
Airspeed…..Accelerate to 76 KIAS
Landing Gear…..-Retract
Wing Flaps…..Retract
Cowl Flaps…..Open
Airspeed…..Accelerate to 86 KIAS
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to follow the manufacturer’s go-around procedure, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA211
- Event ID
- 20170328X61720
- Case number
- GAA17CA211
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c3a0524868d18cc4f35cba16ca1a3c11affda2c3c14c467e4f488cc899beb202; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:07:43.963Z.